3400 Swap Complete -- Check it out!

[Erich]

Well if you start with car engine you already have the proper throttle cable bracket. The small coolant line going from the thermostat neck to the resivoir bottle is already there (I cant recall the exact name of it) And I believe the metal coolant lines for the heater core on the car motor is in a more suitable location.

Just little things no big deal really

I would not use that coolant line since it points up in the back. These are car specific. My favourite line is 1994 and early 1995 where you don't have throttle body likes on it.

The other line is another deal. Minivan's don't require tapping out! The 1999 car ones do. Yeah I am sure you can rig up hoses since the OEM size for a N/L body won't fit, but why risk snaping the plastic lines off the heater core? As for throttle, i have yet to see a 100% interchange. I have used throttles from a 1996 minivan to 2002 thorttles in various cars and they all needed to get their linkage swapped.

For the lower intake coolant like to heater core i am going to say MINIVAN's have the more direct swap.

[geoffinbc]

Our minivan engine required tapping the intake. All new engines use a push in line with an O-ring to seal. If you use your old line then all the new blocks will require tapping. The throttle cable we bought was from a 1995 beretta as was suggested by others on the bord. The throttle cable bracket we bought was from a 2000Grand Am (there was no linkage changing required)also the line from the thermostat pipe to the coolant resivoir was also from a 2000Grand Am.

So say if we started with a 2000Grand Am motor instead of a 2000 Venture motor we would have bought fewer parts.

But like I said before its no big deal.

[bszopi]

Well, I have found a very good reason I like living in a modular home placed on top of a basement, with the garage in the basement.... built in beams for hoisting engines!!





Oh, and it looks like I got an engine that was taken care of....



One question I do have for people though is... does anyone have pics of what the stock 00+ lower manifold gaskets look like? I have the latest revision (released in Nov 2003?) that I was going to put into the 3100, and then was going to put into this 3400. Upon inspection of what I can see in it currently, it looks like it might already have the new gaskets! That would just make my day!!! If anyone has a pic (Aaron???), that would be awesome.

[v6h.o.]

the updated gaskets brad do not have the typical blue coloured impregnated seals on them, they are all Black and they have 2 steel tabs on each end of the gasket around the bolt hole for the end bolts (angled ones) on the side of the intake.

[bszopi]

Yeah, I know what the new ones look like since I have a set in the garage. Hmm, so the only way I MIGHT be able to tell if this engine already has the new gaskets would be to see if the rubber is blue or black.... Good chance I won't be able to tell. Guess I'll just put it apart and replace the gaskets. But I will be pissed if I get it apart and find out that the new gaskets are already in there!!!

[v6h.o.]

Yeah, I know what the new ones look like since I have a set in the garage. Hmm, so the only way I MIGHT be able to tell if this engine already has the new gaskets would be to see if the rubber is blue or black.... Good chance I won't be able to tell. Guess I'll just put it apart and replace the gaskets. But I will be pissed if I get it apart and find out that the new gaskets are already in there!!!

yup. have to pull the intake off to be able to tell.

[Impetuousracer]

I got the 00 3400 in me Malibu, good stuff my friend!

[Erich]

Our minivan engine required tapping the intake. All new engines use a push in line with an O-ring to seal. If you use your old line then all the new blocks will require tapping. The throttle cable we bought was from a 1995 beretta as was suggested by others on the bord. The throttle cable bracket we bought was from a 2000Grand Am (there was no linkage changing required)also the line from the thermostat pipe to the coolant resivoir was also from a 2000Grand Am.

So say if we started with a 2000Grand Am motor instead of a 2000 Venture motor we would have bought fewer parts.

But like I said before its no big deal.

The early van engines are threaded then. I had upper plenums from a 1996 Chevy van.

[geoffinbc]

Yes they are threded. Now all engines use the push connectors. Our particular engine was a 2000model.

[Sorin]

I got the 00 3400 in me Malibu, good stuff my friend!

I noticed you said you have the headers, and your malibu is a 98. I was wanting headers, (though I'd have to go with the overpriced The Other Guys headers due to CARB and me being in California), but was unsure of whether they would fit my car without tweaking stuff (my Malibu is 97, no changes to anything respectable between 97 and 98 ). How did the install go? Did you have to do any modification to anything? Or did they drop right in? There weren't any routing problems in the firewall area?

I know the headers were made from a 99 Grand Am, but I'm pretty sure nothing changed between 97-99 N-bodies that would prevent something like headers from a 99 being put on to a 97.

[Erich]

I got the 00 3400 in me Malibu, good stuff my friend!

I noticed you said you have the headers, and your malibu is a 98. I was wanting headers, (though I'd have to go with the overpriced The Other Guys headers due to CARB and me being in California), but was unsure of whether they would fit my car without tweaking stuff (my Malibu is 97, no changes to anything respectable between 97 and 98 ). How did the install go? Did you have to do any modification to anything? Or did they drop right in? There weren't any routing problems in the firewall area?

I know the headers were made from a 99 Grand Am, but I'm pretty sure nothing changed between 97-99 N-bodies that would prevent something like headers from a 99 being put on to a 97.

These should fit your car.

[bszopi]

Well... it was an interesting day. Got off work at 2pm and decided I needed an exhaust manifold gasket (due to swapping out the rear manifold so I can bolt up to my existing downpipe). I checked 5 stores in 2 towns and no one had one!!! Well, a friend of mine was coming over from a big city, so I had him pick me one up. Oh yeah, at the last store I checked, I ended up having to spend an extra $75 cause the battery in the Suburban died...

Started working on the engine about 3ish.. got the new one about ready to go in and get the old one about ready to come out. Brian showed up with the hoist just after 6pm, and here is the view right around 7pm...



My other friend showed up around that time, so we decided to call it a night and go out to eat and hit the bars. Well, I got ~4 1/2 hrs of sleep last night, so I was pretty damn tired.... Wait, I'm still up... I am pretty damn tired!! I'm getting too old to go out to bars in a college town. Anyway, we'll get back to it first thing in the morning and hopefully I'll have some good news by midday.

[Impetuousracer]

The headers should fit in the Malibu without problem, same N-body as grand am, and 3400 is virtually same as the 3100 thats in there.

[bszopi]

Well, isn't this just a SOB... I have to change the front cover!

Old front cover:


New front cover:


If you look underneath the water pump, you will see an additional mounting boss. This is for an idler wheel on the GA's belt routing. It actually sticks out some, causing my upper engine mount not to be able to bolt up. One more thing I hadn't planned on doing. And I'll probably have to get a new gasket too... AARGH!! With my luck, the damn stores won't have one of these either.

[JohnyG]

Couldnt you just take an angle grinder to it? Would be much easier than swapping the cover.

-John